Conservation Resources 
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The City of 
Estherville 


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Items of 
Interest... 



JANUARY. 1904 



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To know that which before us lies 
In daily life is the prime wisdom. 

— Milton. 

'T has been suggested that a gathering 
together of some of the more or less 
important data with regard to Estherville 
affairs might prove interesting both to 
ourselves and to the resident farmers of the 
vicinity to whose liberal patronage the city is 
so largely indebted. 

Numerous facts and basis of estimates have 
been gathered from the Federal Census of 1900 
and other reference works in our public library; 
from the state library at Des Moines; from the 
Boston statisuican, Edward Atkinson, and from 
the Bureau of Statistics of the Department of 
x^griculture at Washington. Man}^ of our towns- 
people have also contributed valuable informa- 
tion not otherwise obtainable. Their kindness 
and the assistance of L. L. Bingham in prepar- 
ing the material for publication, is gratefully 
acknowledged. 



Lookisi^ Backward. 

The winter of 1880 was not overly encour- 
aging to the 138 inhabitants of the village. 
Prosperity seemed to be smiling- more kindly on 
the thriving towns north and scmth, for they 
had railroads, while we were still obliged to 
team-ireight and stage it for 25 miles down the 
river before boarding the ears at Emmetsburg. 
Even Spirit Lake was unjustly boasting of 
double Estherville's population, and many of 
the prominent traders and professional men of 
the booming burgs about were soliciting Emmet 
county patronage in Frank Davey's ably edited 
Northern Vindicator. The ox teams had not 
yet brought the lumber from Sherburn for the 
first Estherville church— the Methodist. The 
county seat had been carried to the then prom- 
ising, new and centrally located rival town of 
Swan Lake, where the early advent of the 
Northwestern railroad from Algona was fondly 
expected to put an eternal quietus to Esther- 
ville's boast of a speedy recapture of the kid- 
napped seat of political authority. But "he 
laughs best wdio laughs last" and today our 
wide-awake, pushing, successful city, railroad 
center and county capitol, has outstripped her 



old rivals and is easily the foremost in this sec- 
tion of the state. 

Population. 

If you will ask Harry or Mable, whichever 
is doing that part of arithmetic this term, to 
work out the following problem in proportion: 
The enumeration of children of school age in 
1900 (1,217) is to the population in 1900 (3,237) 
as the enumeration of children of school age in 
1903(1,390) is to the population iu 1903, I think 
the answer will be 3,697, or practically 3,700, as 
the approximately correct population for this 
year. 

During the 10-year census period, 1890 to 
1900, while the population of the state was in- 
creasing 17 per cent., Des Moines 24 per cent., 
Algona 40 per cent., Emmetsburg 48 per cent.. 
Spirit Lake 56 per cent, and Spencer 65 per cent.. 
Estherville easily distanced them all with a 
growth of 119 per cent. If the comparison were 
made for a 20-year period the showing would be 
yet more remarkable — for instance a 2245 per 
cent, gain for Esther vnlle to one of 179 per cent, 
for Emmetsburg. 



City's Wealth. 

The value of the various properties owned 
by the city — electric light and water works 
plant and distributing systems, public parks, 
library building, fire company equipment, real 
estate by the river, etc., may be estimated as 
$80,000.00. If the value of all school property 
in the city, buildings, sites and equipment, were 
added, this estimate would be materially in- 
creased; but technicall}^ the school property be- 
longs to the district, and that includes the town- 
ship. 

Some idea of the fairly satisfactory con- 
dition of private interests may be gained from 
the fact of the present assessed valuation of 
$608,829.00, when it is remembered that the 
assessed valuation is but one-fourth of the offi- 
cial valuation and that the official valuation is 
often 10 to 25 per cent, short of the market 
value. 

City's Debt. 

The council's published report showed a 
total municipal indebtedness of $37,558.50, the 
1st of April 1903 — enough to be sure, but only 
$10.15 per capita, while Sioux City carries a 



debt of $22, Omaha $26, Minneapolis $28 and 
St. Paul $48 per capita. Owing to the careful 
administration of city affairs by the present 
council, the debt as reported last spring" now 
shows a material reduction. Considering- the 
value of the city's publicly owned property, its 
debt situation is about that of the buyer of a 
well improved farm who has paid over half the 
purchase price. 

Taxes. 

Suppose you are the owner of a snug little 
home which you wouldn't care to sell for less 
than $1,250, but which the assessor and board 
of review placed conservatively at $1,000 as the 
official valuation. One-fourth of this, or $250, 
would be the assessed valuation and on the basis 
of the 69 mill levy on which we paid taxes last 
year, your payment to Treasurer Peterson was 
$17.25. Of this amount $1.00 went to the state, 
$3.40 to the county, $5.35 to the school board 
and $7.50 to the city. Some of the items were 
county bridge, 25 cents; county school fund 25 
cents; poor 25 cents; insane 12i cents; soldier's 
relief 2i cents; roads 25 cents; teachers $3. 57i; 
electric lights $1.25; street improvements $1.00 
and library 75 cents. Then if you were near 



enough to the hydrants for fire protection, you 
paid an extra 5 mills, or $1.25, to the water 
works fund. This year's 27 mills municipal levy 
should bring into the treasury during- 1904, 
$16,438.38, aside from the water tax, which will 
be something over $2,000. 

Fire . 

When the wierd, piercing, powerful, siren 
fire whistle rouses us from midnight slumbers, 
it is a comfort to know that an ever ready and 
well organized company of 46 volunteer firemen, 
two 125- horse power boilers, a 500,000 gallon 
steam pump, 1,800 feet of hose and all the water 
in the Des Moines river between here and Lake 
Shetek are read}^ for the fray and will make 
short work of the red-tongued destroyer. The 
only compensation the firemen receive is ex- 
em. ption from poll tax and $1.00 to each member 
who answers to roll call after the victory. If, 
however, a fake alarm has been turned in, or the 
fire has been put out before they arriv^e, they 
have to content themselves v/ith the exercise 
of the run and go without the dollar. It cost 
$616.19 to maintain the ^ve department last 
year. 



Water. 

The city's water is forced b}^ direct pressure 
through the 18,480 feet of distributing mains, 
wliich foi'iii a net work under our streets to the 
23 iiydrants, the drinking fountain and the 156 
connections of private users. If the total 
amount for the year were brought in tank cars 
from Spirit Lake, it would take a long train load 
every day, with a frequent extra, to supply us. 

Lidht. 

One luxury that the city indulges in is its 
excellent lighting service. Comparatively few 
places of the size Estherville provide their 
streets with 88,000 candle i30wer illumination, 
and many cities of far larger population content 
themselves with less, affirming they cannot 
afford such light as ours. Marshalltown and 
Ottumwa for instance, furnish their streets with 
but 14-candle power per inhabitant, while we 
furnish 23 — over 60 per cent. more. 

And then our meter rate to private consum- 
ers for their upwards of 5,000 incandescent 
lights is but 10 cents, while 15 cents is very 
common and in many cities of the state the rate 



is 20 cents. This too while we are paying near- 
ly double the price per ton for coal. If we con- 
tented ourselves with as little public light as 
some cities, could buy our coal as cheap, and 
would charge our citizens as much for the cur- 
rent they use, as is demanded elsewhere, our 
water works and electric light indebtedness 
would speedily be liquidated and a handsome 
revenue turned into the city treasury. 

Schools. 

$18,500.00 was the amount expended during 
the last fiscal year for the maintenance of our 
public schools. The. enrollment probably reach- 
ed 925, giving each of the 21 teachers an aver- 
age of 44 pupils. Considering that the school 
item is much the largest on our tax roll and of 
how far higher than financial importance are 
the character formation and mental training of 
our citizens of tomorrow, it is remarkable how 
little interest many of us take in school elec- 
tions and how uninformed we please to remain 
with regard to the school board's administration 
of the important interests with which we en- 
trust them. 



Post Office. 

Postmaster Whelan reports a total of 13 
resident employes of the postal service, bring-- 
ing to the city from Uncle Sam's treasury, an 
annual salary item of $11,000.00. During- the 
year we have registered 3,419 pieces of mail 
matter, have purchased 4,809 money orders of 
a value of $22,215.28, and received from the 
postoffice $31,330.95 in payment of the 4,142 
orders which the mail broug-ht to us — a balance 
in the town's favor of nearly enough to pay our 
$10,077.97 postag-e bill. That means a lot of 
letters and is indicative of our intelligent inter- 
est in persons and affairs outside the city. Six- 
teen mails are received and dispatched daily. 

Library. 

When in 1881, after much planning and 
many socials and picnics, for revenue mainly, 
20 books were purchased and placed on Mi's. 
Frankie Barber's parlor table, as the nucleus of 
a public library, the workers little dreamed of 
the elegance of the commodious structure, which, 
thanks to Mr. Carnegie, now houses the multi- 
plied harvest of their early sowing. For the 
year ending Jan. 1st, 1903, there were borrowed 



from the library for reading at home, 12,856 
books and 17,063 persons visited the rooms. 
With the increased use since moving into the 
new buikling, that record will doubtless be 
greatly exceeded during the coming tw^elve 
months. In addition to the circulating* and 
reference departments, there are reading tables 
supplied with two daily papers, 11 weeklies and 
22 magazines. All residents of the city are en- 
titled to free use of the books and current read- 
ing matter, subject of course to the rules of the 
board of trustees, and persons living outside 
the city are welcome to make use of the library 
when in town, but are charged a fee of 5 cents 
each for books to take to their homes. 

Biirths and Deaths. 

Last year the stork brought to various ex- 
pectant home nests about town, 56 interesting 
new residents. During the same twelve months 
38 of our towns-people took passage with the 
sombre boatman for other shores. This mor- 
tality of but 10 to each thousand of inhabitants 
is extremely low and marks Estherville as one 
of the most healthful of localities. Fifteen to 
twent}^ deaths to the thousand are not uncommon 
in the eastern states and from that up to 45 at 



Shreveport, La. Even at Los Angeles the death 
rate is 18, 80 percent, greater than Estherville, 
and at San Diego, 22i, 125 per cent, greater. Our 
medium humidity, medium temperature and 
medium altitude explain in part the healthful- 
ness of this vicinity. Estherville is 158 feet 
hig-her tlian the hig-hest point in Indiana and 
nearly 300 feet above the tip top of Illinois. 

Banking. 

It's banks are the heart of the city's life. 
In and out flows the golden current of its 
wealth, vitalizing and keeping in healthful ac- 
tivity all the members of the civic body. The 
Hon. Howard Graves' original :S510,000 bank has 
grown with the town and others have been or- 
ganized until now the combined capital of our 
six banking houses is $225,000.00, and the de- 
posits have increased from $15,000.00 to $757,- 
100.00. 

Railroads. 

Next to the quantities and values of farm 
products, listed elsewhere, the most important 
contributors to the city's interests are our rail- 
roads with their five lines reaching out in as 
many directions, busy with outward bound and 



incoming" freightage and travel. Their number 
of resident employes naturally varies somewhat 
at different seasons of the year, from 250 to 395, 
and their monthly pay checks from $12,000 to 
$16,000. The city has reason to appreciate that 
cash item of $165,000.00 per year. The execu- 
tive council at Des Moines fixes the assessed 
valuation of railroad property in the state. 
That in Esther ville was placed at $18,615.00 for 
1903 and brought to the schools $398.36 and to 
the city $651.52. 

A Few Bills. 

It will be at least of passing interest to note 
the relative draft on the domestic wallet of a 
few of our aggregate annual expenditures as 
tabulated on another page — for instance 20 per 
cent more for the comfort we derive from our 
tobacco than for the education of our children. 

Business Opportunities* 

A first-rate brick and tile factory is assured. 
We have abundant water for a large canning 
factory and a paper mill, and water power to 
turn the wheels in an up-to-date wood working 
plant and sash factory. The unusually large 
number of thriving towns reached daily by local 



freight makes this an admirable distributing- 
point, as our wholesale implement, grocery, 
creamery supply and fruit houses bear witness. 
Other lines would have the same advantages. 
Then Estherville needs a mammoth creamery to 
centralize the butter industry for 50 miles around 
and a good, large, well equipped machine 
shop. If some bright citizen could hit on an 
inexpensive method of getting the aluminum out 
of the clay hereabout, he would have a bonanza, 
for there is enough on each quarter section to 
equal the total annual United States production 
6,000,000 pounds for 50 years and to make each 
acre yield 1600,000.00 at present prices. 

Number? 

Until very recently we managed to live 
quite comfortably without the convenience of 
the telephone. Now-a-days if the city wire 
transmitted conversation of a day were crowd- 
ed into the space of a single room, it would be 
equal to a boiler-shop and sewing society com- 
bined. Then we talk on an average, 50 times a 
day with out of town people. This costs us per- 
haps 12,325.00 a year, for they pay half the 
time, and with our bill of $3,732.00 for the rent- 
al of the 268 'phones here in town, makes an 



annual total conversational expense of $6,057.00 
— and this is a country dedicated to free speech. 

Fraternal Insurance. 

Complete data was not readily obtainable, 
but from the figures furnished by twelve local 
insurance lodg-es, it would appear that the 
yearly amount sent out of town in carrying- the 
policies of their 738 members is something over 
$11,700.00. Possibly an equal amount goes to 
the old line companies. 

Church and Lod^e. 

In comparing the local organizations it must 
be remembered that usually a person holds 
membership in but one church, while a lodge 
man may be a confirmed "jiner", pay dues to 
several, and be counted as many times. The 
following figures are subject to correction: — 
Membership in the ten protestant and Catholic 
churches of the city, 1,539; membership in 
twenty-five civic societies, 1,743. Annual 
church incidental expenses, $1,932. Civic 
society annual expense and benefits, $4,328.00. 
The churches pay their pastors $7,280.00 per 
year. 



Women's Clubs. 

The various departments of the Woman's 
club, and the North Side, Ladies' Literary, 
Search Light, Tea Cup, Bon Ami, D. D. D., and 
K. K. K. clubs, as well as the P. E. O., and 
possibly other exclusively femenine organiza- 
tions of whose existence the writer has not been 
informed, are evidence of broadening- interests 
and an intellectual activitv that refuses to be 
satisfied with the run-in-and-gossip, and charact- 
eristically aimless social life of ye olden times. 

Conclusion. 

So runs the tale. Take it all in all we have 
a city to be proud of and to enjoy living in, and 
the limit to whose possibilities still lies away in 
the future. It is ambitious, progressive, self- 
reliant and successful, because we make proper 
use of its natural advantages and are somewhat 
that way ourselves. We scrap a little occasion- 
ally, to be sure, — enough to keep mentally keen, 
but find qualities to admire in the other fellow 
after all. We are after the dollar of course, 
but not first, last and all the time, for we 
realize that life means more than cash, — helping 
our neighbor enjoy the journey for instance, 



giving him a lift at the hard places, and seeing 
that the metal of our own character rings true. 



Estherville's Mayors. 

DR. E. H. BALLARD M. L. ARCHER 

J. H. BARNHART A. W. DAWSON 

E. J. WOODS E. E. HARTUNG 

A. O. PETERSON E. J. BREEN 

MACK J. GROVES 



Some of Our Aiiiiiia! Expenditures. 

Bread and Cereals $48,100.00 

Meat 44,000.00 

Tobacco 22,200.00 

Butter 18,870.00 

Boots and Shoes 18,520.00 

Schools 18,500.00 

Sugar . . 14,800.00 

Poultry and Eggs 13,650.00 

Milk 13,505.00 

Coffee 10,878.00 

Potatoes 6,475.00 

Tea 1,391.00 

Salt 1,110.00 



A Year's Results From Emmet County's 
Fertile Acres. 



Compiled from Government Reports and 
Expressed in Car Loads. Of course Only 
a Part of the Quantities Here Given Was 
Sliipped, Mucii Beiu^ Used at Home 

1 car of Wool 

9 cars of Butter 

27 cars of Flax 

34 cars of Egg-s 

110 cars of Potatoes 

219 cars of Wheat 

5] 2 cars of Milk 

546 cars of Barley 

598 cars of Oats 

2156 cars of , Corn 

5000 cars of Hay 

9212 cars in all, or 230 trains of 40 cars each. 



VALUES IF ALL HAD BEEN SOLD 

Corn ; $ 539,080.50 

Cattle, Hog-s and Sheep 436,784.00 

Hay 242,680.00 

Oats 201,811.50 

Dairy Products 142, 107.00 

Barley 136,512.00 

Wheat 87,516.00 

Poultry 50,275.00 

Eg-g-s 44,913.60 

Potatoes 36,600.00 

Flax 20,560.00 

Wool 5,514.00 

Total, $1,944,353.60 



"ffN compiling and presenting this little work, 
the publisher has of necessity been com- 
pelled to treat all matters briefly. Those de- 
siring additional information on any of the mat- 
ters herein treated, will be cheerfully furnished 
the same by addressing, 

FRANK P. WOODS, 

ESTHERVILLE, lOWA. 



THE IOWA SAVINGS BANK 

OF ESTHERVILLE. IOWA 



CAPITAL, - - $50,000.00 

SURPLUS, - - - $10,000.00 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: 

E. J. Breen Jno. Amundson, Jr. 

L. R. Woods P. S. Converse 

C. M. Brown Mack J. Groves 

C. C. Stover E. E. Hartung- 

Frank P. Woods 



OFFICERS: 

E. J. Breen, Frank P. Woods, 

President Cashier 

Mack J. Groves, F. W. Converse, 

Vice-President Assistant Cashier 



Interest Paid on Deposits. Farm Loans Made. 
Accounts Solicited. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




016 086 519 2( 



TO hold the same views at forty as we hold at 
twenty is to have been stupefied for a score 
of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as 
an unteachable brat, well birched and none the 
wiser. 

A LL who have meant ^ o o d work with their 
■*^ whole hearts, have done ^ood work, 
although they may die before they have time to 
si^n it. Every heart that has beat strong and 
cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in 
the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind. 

—ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. 



